Messages - August

I am studying to become a teacher, and it just hit me that some students might belong in the third category. I hope my brain does not end up on the chalkboard before I can get productive and start shaping the next generations!

That is me saying that the third option is not a good one. If you have the means to truly make a positive difference in the world you need to do everything in your power to utilize them.

Amdist the sea of flowery dreck in today's power metal scene, Lost Horizon stands head and shoulders above the rest. Ethereal Magnanimus, aka Daniel Heiman, has a voice that emanates pure manliness; he may well be the most powerful singer since Bruce Dickinson. Transcendental Protagonist, aka Wojtek Lisicki, forges songs that shine with thunder, force, and might. This band is pure majesty, check 'em out.

I have to say I agree with NHA. Is Darken a magical Noble savage now? Kevin Costner? Throughout history material gain has been the main catalyst for strife, and I don't even think I need to exemplify here, no? Moreover, even when materialism isn't there as an end in itself we can see it imbued in spiritual practice: Protestant work ethic aims for success in the material world to confirm the worth of the soul. It should be obvious then that the world needs both spirituality and materialism to function properly, like a car with both engine and gears.

To put some perspective on this, this guy had apparently been a major thorn in the side of the government for years, being unable to function without an hourly dose of Judas Priest. With the Swedish state's generally far-gone intervention policies, this was the unavoidable result.

Is Minas Morgul worth getting into? I'm really only familiar with Stronghold and Oath Bound, both of which I enjoy, but when I first listened to Minas Morgul the other day it felt a bit juvenile, or silly even. I made a little pharaoh dance to the track Orthanc.

Look at that, there's even one Hessian trooper down in Nigeria. I''ve actually been trying to gather contacts in Africa for a while, in preparation for a long excursion. Would it be against the 'rules' to ask for a username based on an IP address?

This terrorist strike is part of the rise of cultural clashes between liberalism, islam and socialism (which is much debated on anus.com and amerika.org) There's no need to ignore this "because we're tired of hearing about terrorists" If you want to stick your head in the sand then go ahead but don't force the rest of us to join you.

You seem to have missed my point. Is it sticking your head in the sand to call for a more mature approach to these topics? In light of what has happened, let's discuss e.g "the rise of cultural clashes between liberalism, islam and socialism", rather than write up this particular guy as a hero. Doing the latter is counterproductive and hurts this site's perceived legitimacy. How much of mainstream society do you hope to be taken seriously by (and thereby influence) with this shock rock approach?

As for the consequences of Breivik's actions, they too must be seen as counterproductive to his cause. Is there a better way to inspire sympathy for the marxists than to openly attack them like this? When this was going on I hoped for an international terror group to be behind this, as that would work against the multiculturalists.

The love around here for anything that has shock value is childish, and it's getting predictable. Is this 4chan? Honestly now, he would have received the anusian accolades even if he did this to promote ice cream.

The reason for this, I beg to propose, is that the nitty gritty of musical composition has very little to do with ideology, and "real" composers are often hilariously ignorant in areas other than musical poetics. Composition, in other words, is not something you "choose" to do. It's not an activity, it's a condition.

This is most definitely true. I would like to suggest that, ironically, most of the metal that is appreciated here was composed with stupid unbridled passion (derived from 'lowly' girlfriend issues and such), rather than with cold calculation aiming for anything tradenscent. Studying the techniques of art will at most enable the utilization of your already inherent artistic capacity. It will not give you an artist's soul.

The bottom line is that most people here, including myself, are likely too dry and anal (tihi) to create great art.

I sure do hope we all take metal seriously, or otherwise the DLA woud be the most elaborate hipster joke known to man! I think it goes without saying that it is something like early Darkthrone, rather than Cradle of Filth, that is "metal" in this context.

Not sure how to feel about this. While it's great that black metal has been deemed important enough for diplomats to learn about, and I'm not exactly sure what principles will be taught, I would hope they did their research, and not get all their info from Dimmu Borgir.

The problem here is that, if it is taken seriously and interpreted correctly, black (and death / thrash etc.) metal should by all accounts be as taboo as nazism or pedophilia to the liberal government of Norway. As is apparent from this turn of events, they obviously do not take it seriously, or have at least never understood it. This is a slap in the face!

"I'm kind of like, sickened, by, like, uh, sort of, reveling and like negativity". Yes go ahead and get comfortable with your painless and inoffensive prozac tunes. You won't achieve anything with them, but at least you can tell people about them without feeling embarrassed for actually having made a stand.